The Great Homer By Adam Fitzwater

How Homer wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey

• http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/People/Homer/

1. The poems of Illiad shows the seige of the city of Ilion or Troy during the Trojan War.
2. The Odyssey focuses on the Greek character Odysseus and his ten year trip from Troy to Ithaca after the fall of Troy.
3. Homer's ancestry can be traced from Odyssey.
4. Homer's parents were Epikaste and Telemachus.
5. He was born and lived in the 8th or 9th century.
6. He was a great storyteller.
7. Not that much is known about homer.
8. Some people say he was born on the island of Chios and others say that he existed in Ionia.
9. The way he talks and the way he describes things in the poems makes people think that Homer lived in Ionia.
10. When people think of the blind poet Homer compared to Ancient Greece, the first thing that they think about is his awesome epic poems Iliad and Odyssey.
11. People have argued whether the Odyssey was written by Homer or if is all fake for a very long time.
12. There is enough evidence to believe the Odyssey was written in a style that is Homers.
13. Another disagreement is whether Homer wrote both Iliad and Odyssey.
14. They have different styles which makes people wonder if they were written by different people.
15. One ancient Greek literary specialist namely Longinus tried to say that the styles differed because Homer wrote the poems at two different periods of his life.
16. Iliad was written when he was young while Odyssey was written when homer was older.
17. People also disagree hoe homer made such lengthy poems.
18. Some people believe some body combined all his works together into one long epic poem.
19. Many scholars agree that Iliad and Odyssey went through change and were improved during the 8the century from the original material.
20. An argument that has tried to arise with the reasoning that long works can be composed out loud by poets who belong to a long tradition of storytelling.

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1. In the first and second centuries AD Homer's writing legacy is still showing off its unmatched muscle,almost 1000 years later.
2. The series of epic, of which the Iliad and the Odyssey were his main stories, still doing good among Roman poets, mainly Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, and Statius.
3. The Roman teacher Quintilian writes that Homer was the best poet of all time.
4. The Satyricon, a prose parody of the Odyssey written by Petronius, describes the events of Encolpius, a Greek tracked down and tortured by the god Priapus in lieu of Odysseus's tor-menter, Poseidon.
5. The Greek romances, which share patterns with the Odyssey also arise at this time which are Chariton of Aphrodisias.
6. In the middle of the second century, Lucian writes The True History, a prose narrative which parodies episodes in the Odyssey.
7. When Homer and the Odyssey still are talked about in literary thought, his influence finds an unlikely place: the Parallel Lives of Plutarch..
8. Scholars say that Plutarch uses sad imagery in his biographies.
9. He has recently been invested in examining his literary techniques, little research aside from that of Judith Mossman has yet mentioned his epic yet.
10. Plutarch creates important connections between the Life of Marius and the Odyssey.
11. The Life of Marius is not the most famous of Plutarch's biographies.
12. Alot more famous are Alexander, Julius Cesar, and Antony from today.
13. Cesar is much more famous because of TV.
14. Plutarch's Life of Marius is our earliest surviving account of the entire career of Gaius Marius who was the uncle of Julius Cesar.
15. Plutarch's depiction of Marius relies to some extent on the tradition portraying him as a competent but overly ambitious general driven by an insatiable lust for power.
16. Plutarch wants Marius to be an example for his readers who aspire to virtue.
17. In order to help his readers evaluate Marius, Plutarch constructs the Life of Marius in a way that draws comparisons to the famous epic example of Odysseus
18. By placing Marius in situations similar to those of Odysseus, Plutarch highlights the moral character of Marius more effectively.
19. Plutarch's depiction of Marius relies to some extent on the tradition portraying him as a competent but overly ambitious general driven by an insatiable lust for power.
20. A biography of an aspiring warlord like Gaius Marius, then, seems an odd Life on which to model comparisons to Odysseus,

• http://library.thinkquest.org/19300/data/homer.htm

1. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are a major part of ancient history.
2. Ancient Greece is a major part of the eastern half of the world's history.
3. The United States alone owes so much to the Greeks.
4. The Iliad and the Odyssey are believed to have been major parts of a young Greek's education.
5. The Iliad is a powerful, beautiful, and awe-inspiring work of ancient Greece.
6. It combines the horridness and sometimes mundaneness of war into a epic poem filled with art, illustrious descriptions, and a myriad of wonderful literary images.
7. The Odyssey is a magnificient piece of literature that we find absolutely spectacular in the fact of its potential for helping us understand pre-history of many ancient cultures, and because of the fact that it is so well written and perhaps one of the first "books" (epics) ever written down.
8. Another key element in the development and story of the Iliad is the prodigious role of the polytheistic beliefs of the Trojans and Achaeans.
9. Different "gods" were interpeted as being for different armies, i.e. Apollo for the Trojans, and Athena for the Achaeans.
10. Most of the people that are in the story all seem to believe that most or all of their actions are already predetermined or in control of the "gods".
11. A large part of Homer's Iliad consists of the detailing of the wretchedness and eventual mundaness of constant war.
12. Even though the main focus and crux of the story is in fact the trials and tribulations of the hero Achilles, the war and Homer's lucid and always new description of it make the work even more enjoyable.
13. There are many points in the book when the fighting and specific things about the fighting are described in utter disregard for any filter of violence.
14. The story of Homer's Iliad actually centers around the "rage of Achilles, contrary to popular belief.
15. At first thought or reading the epic poem seems like its main theme is utlimately the totality and gruesomness of war.
16. In reality it is an ancient "Saving Private Ryan" in that it tells us of the raw details of war without any lack of description and information.
17. However this ultimate devistation and emotion of the actual fighting and Trojan War is not the main focal point of this heroic tale. The real story centers on one awesome fighter, man, and hero--that man is Achilles.
18. Achilles shows the greatest military prowess of any of the Achaean ranks and has the greatest fighting ability of all of the warriors, Trojan or Achaean.
19. The "Odyssey" is an epic story that has been a significant piece of literature since it was first composed and will remain so for ages to come.
20. Odysseus is one of the first Greek mythic heroes renowned for his brain as well as his muscle. Indeed he is a man with an inquiring mind, and he is also a man with outstanding prowess and bravery.

• http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/biography/216/Homer/

1. Homer is as much a subject of myth and mystery as the legendary warriors who populate his poems.
2. His work, "The Odyssey" and "The Iliad" are regarded as the greatest legacy of classical Greek literature.
3. Nothing is known of the man himself, but it is thought he lived at some time in the 8th Century B.C.in Asia Minor.
4. In the centuries before they gained literacy, the Greeks used oral poetry to entertain, teach, and memorialize the deeds of the past.
5. By using Dactylic Hexameter and formal poetic form, wandering rhapsodes were aided in memorizing large passages.
6. Homer is thought to have been an exceptional rhapsode who began collecting, codifying, and refining the oral traditions and recording them.
7. Homer's powerful yet subtle imagery illuminates the nature of heroism, the relationship between men and the gods, and between men themselves.
8. His character's actions transcends the Classical world and achieve a timeless universality.
9. The best translations of the text strive for clarity of language without sacrificing the beauty and rhythmic nature of the poetry.
10. The epic style of poetry influenced countless authors through subsequent ages, from the Roman Virgil, to the Italian Dante, and the English John Milton.
11. Homer's lyric imagery, sweeping multi-layered plot arcs, and heroic characterizations have had an even broader influence and remain the foundation of western literature.
12. In the Iliad the poems use the Trojan War, when heros from across ancient Greece rallied together to fight against their counterparts in Troy, as a backdrop.
13. The ever-meddling gods cause the dispute and remain active in its resolution.
14. Although Achilles, the heroic ideal and greatest warrior of the Greeks, is absent for much of the Iliad, it is his pride and defection which remains the central drama.
15. He fights with Agemmonon in the first chapter and refuses to enter the battle because of his hubris and anger. Only the death of his friend Patroclus forces him back into the battle, allowing the Greeks to win and peace to be restored.
16. When the "The Odyssey" begins, Troy has been burnt, Paris is dead, and the Greeks return home, victorious but few in number.
17. The poem centers on Odysseus, the strategist who broke the deadlock of the conflict by creating the Trojan Horse, and his long journey home to save his wife and son from avaricious suitors.
18. His offense to the god Posieon delays his journey as does his overweening hubris.
19. After ten years of remarkable adventures, he arrives home to his wife Penelope and son, punishes her suitors, and restores his kingdom.
20. Homer is argualbbly the best epic writer of all time.